Five days later, as I write these words, Interim Show President Maurice Jung is still assembling final attendance figures. While he is certain that T.H.E. Show did not break 9000 aggregate visits—that's the total whereby a person who attends all…
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T.H.E. Show was near its end, and some exhibitors were already packing up before the metaphorical closing bell had rung. But that didn't mean that Show Manager Marine Presson wasn't still hard at work. Standing by the hotel check-in counter, next to T.H.E. Show's registration table, Marine was in overdrive to ensure everything was going smoothly.
Our July issue hits newsstands and mailboxes this weekend. Jason Victor Serinus kicks things off by asking whether CES will remain a major show for high-end audio, but occupying pride of place on the cover is Zu Audio's Soul Supreme speaker. A big paper-cone driver (with a whizzer cone) operated full-range—we all know that can't work, right. But Herb Reichert and John Atkinson found their preconceptions blown away by the sound.
Ken Micallef lives with the Italian Unison Research Unico Primo amplifier; Brian Damkroger rewires his system with Nordost Valhalla2 cables; John Atkinson ups his…
Ken Micallef wrote about the Elac Debut B6 in July 2016 (Vol.39 No.7):
After their big splash at the 2015 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, and following Herb Reichert's munificent review in Stereophile, I was as pleased as a patch of pickled power tubes when John Atkinson delivered to my door the Elac Debut B6 loudspeakers. What began as an audition turned into this Follow-Up review.
In his April 2016 review of the Debut B6, Herb wrote: "The main thing I noticed was how water-clear and relaxed the sound was: open, not grainy or stiff." He also observed that "my critical faculties were…
How would the B6 fare with voices? Playing Johnny Hartman's I Just Dropped By to Say Hello (LP, Impulse! A-57), I felt I was looking at the baritone singer's tonsils—the leading edges of his purr of a voice were extremely well defined. Kenny Burrell's guitar was drier than I recalled on past recordings, as was Hank Jones's tinkling piano. Milt Hinton's deepest bass notes were well extended, but the upper mids of his double bass sounded a wee tight, even slightly compressed. This dryness and tightening of upper frequencies was a minor foible, particularly as it was joined seamlessly to the…
Photo: Kelsey Ohira
May 12, 2014. The day it all began. Three major events happened in my life on May the 12th:
1. My violent hatred towards the USPS was born.
2. I spent the most I ever have, till this very day, on a yellow cab (footnote 1).
3. A divine pair of Technics SL1200 Mk.II turntables entered my life.
Well, they didn't exactly enter my life, per se. They were left on my (then) doorstep in West Harlem, which may give you some insight on #1. More on that later. I need to calm myself. (Sips Earl Grey vehemently in straightjacket.)
By this point in…
Allen Toussaint: American Tunes
Nonesuch 554644 (CD). 2016. Joe Henry, prod.; Ryan Freeman,, eng.; Wesley Seidman, Monique Eveleyin, asst engs. ADD? TT: 49:31
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½
Nonesuch 554644 (CD). 2016. Joe Henry, prod.; Ryan Freeman,, eng.; Wesley Seidman, Monique Eveleyin, asst engs. ADD? TT: 49:31
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½
David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Phife Dawg, Merle Haggard, Dan Hicks, Ernestine Anderson, Lonnie Mack, Maurice White, Blowfly, Otis Clay, Steve Young, George Martin, Keith Emerson, Henry McCullough, Prince. Was there a genre or subgenre of music that did not grieve in the closing months of 2015 through spring 2016—a period that must rank among the most devastating ever for the loss of important…
Last January, in Las Vegas, a record 170,000 people attended the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show. Most of them neither saw nor heard a trace of high-end audio gear. Not only was all mention of what CES calls "high performance audio" absent from the show's official Attendee Guide, but the hallways of the Venetian Tower, which in past CESes were filled with high-end manufacturers, dealers, and distributors, were anything but crowded.
Given the steady decline, in recent years, in CES attendance by high-end audio distributors and dealers, many observers were not surprised by the decreased…
Register to win a pair of Meze 99 Classics Headphones ($309.00 Retail Value) we are giving away.
According to the company:
What is it that discards the superfluous, the gimmicky, the flashy, the questionable, the overly fragile, the misplaced? The obvious answer would be time. And this is also the riddle of good design: very few objects achieve such a rarefied consistency of qualities. This is our aim with the Meze 99 Classics, the anti-fragility of a classic, with a sound on par with the design. Pure, natural sound in a timeless body.
Click here for more info.…
Thursday, June 16, 6–9pm: Gramophone will celebrate the Grand Opening of their Gaithersburg showroom (8513 Grovemont Circle, Gaithersburg) with an evening of wonderful music, delicious food, and world-class audio/video systems, while on Friday, June 17, 6–9pm: Gig Harbor Audio (3019 Judson Street, Suite D, Gig Harbor) and J-Corder (5800 Soundview Drive, D-101, Gig Harbor) will host a "Tactile Psychoacoustics" listening party.
Participating brands at the Gramophone event will include AudioQuest, Bowers & Wilkins, McIntosh, Lutron, Sony, and many more. For additional information and to…
My lifestyle consultant warned me not to review Zu Audio's Soul Supreme loudspeaker ($4500/pair).
"Why not?" I asked. "They're exciting and super-enjoyable."
"Zu speakers are not mainstream," he explained. "People either love them or hate them. They're for music lovers, not audiophiles."
"That's not true!" I whined like a disappointed child. "They play Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin with spooky soul and natural tone! They play big classical orchestras—especially with trumpets and timpani—with radical ease and full-tilt momentum! And . . . and . . . they project large…